Sunday, December 31, 2006

Hm just felt like it.Woke up and it's 10pm on December 31st...nothing else really to do.My PS2 is still locked down under Guitar Hero usage.However, there's a bunch of Comiket 71 stuff to look forward to!

Currently listening to IOSYS's new album (loopy as hell...that locked girl rendition makes me think of Patch being forced into a dress or something...and of course O-Overdrive.)

There'll probably be more but I'm a bit less enthused about C71 than C70.

Maybe it's cause of my lack of hard drive space...then again that's never stopped me.I don't know, probably cause I have no clue what's being released (being remedied as I'm torrenting the catalogue.)

Also, I think I'm going to have to crack and download the ultimate sad girl in snow anime Kanon.Need more Kyon :V

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Remember Warakia of the Night in Melty Blood?He'd gotten so powerful he was just a concept (your worst fear), so Shiki couldn't really take him out (no physical form) until he had Arcueid help him and Sion by manifesting (by using her reality marble) him into a physical form where Shiki could hit the points.

Meet Ryogi Shiki. Female. Prototype for Tohno Shiki and actually from Nasu's first? work, Kara no Kyoukai. Actually stronger, as she can kill concepts, plus she doesn't need those wussy glasses (Wonder how she stays sane.) Official movie or animated short? Not sure, ufotable is actually real but Comiket 71 seems an odd event to announce an official work.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

1. People are jerks. Not all of them, but many. What Pogue calls “online etiquette” never existed—or if it did, it was just like regular etiquette: something some of us aspire too, and others ignore and mock. People were jerks on Bulletin Board Systems in the 80s and on USENET in the 90s, and people are jerks on web forums now.

Monday, December 25, 2006

YouTube just keeps the lols coming, now it doesn't accept new lines anywhere in it's fields.This means video descriptions, even if you edit them later.It also means complaint forms, so even my snarky message to them could not contain an enter.Freaking idiocy.

I'm quite looking forward to Arcana Heart now that it's out.Actually that's a lie I was looking forward to it ever since it was announced.Lilica is mine.

GGAC is looking more loopy than ever. It's still GG but still, I have a lot of reservations just seeing it in action. And yes the voices are still unforgiveable.

MBAC verB should be hitting the arcades soon. Get to see if people can figure out how to close in with White Len, she has lots of really cool shit once she's close to you but getting in there is pretty hard (shitty shitty air normals.)

IaMP now works again, or rather, the superglue mod I did on the trigger button seems to have finally decided to work. This is awesome for me, now I don't have to ship it back to Hong Kong for no replacement (just a refund) because it's out of stock/print.

Friday, December 22, 2006

I figured out the problem through simple trial and error.Using a 500kb clip of Ichigo Mashimaro, I attempted to upload under the very simple title/description/tag "Nope."It worked.I then tried with my IOSYS movie title/description/tag, but with the same video.It failed.I then tried just having the title with SJIS, then the description, then the tag.All three failed.Only when I completely cleaned all fields from any trace of Japanese text did the upload finally work.

This would also explain why googling the error only gave Japanese webpages.

It's official, I can't upload to Youtube anymore.Not in firefox 2, not in firefox 1.5, and not in internet explorer.I know it's a shitty javascript error on THEIR part, because I can upload to jhed (jhu webspace) with THEIR javascript uploader just fine.Fucking A.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Guilty Gear Act Cadenza...er wait Accent Core is out.New announcer is gay as fuck.COMPLETELY redone voices are throwing me off like fucking crazy.Some voice actors have been changed, and the ones who stayed completely redid their samples.Like a lot of their sayings have been...well slowed down.Example is Sol goes BAAAANDIT BRINGER.Not sure if there's an option to use old voicing, as it's really fucking up my hearing these matches (sometimes I swear it's the same sometimes I swear it's completely different.)

Bridget...girlier? Yeah possible. Loli to the max.Johnny, I think same VA, but his ensenga is like ENSENGA! RAWR!Testament, mostly the same.Faust, mostly the same.Dizzy, completely different, maybe the movie file I had was wonky but a lot worse.Sol, is it still Daisuke doing the voicing? Not sureZappa, same.Ky, same.May, same.Anji, unsure, I have one movie of him sounding mostly the same, and the other it seems all his samples are lot angrier.Baiken, GAH BRING BACK KENSHIN FFS. New VA is :VEdit: will be updated as I watch more. (I have like 100 matches of ggac so yeah)

Already finding shit that looks stupidly broken.Half life coin loop otg from Johnny, half life combos off grand viper for Sol...EX moves look weird.I'm probably going to throw the filebank matches on u2b because of how stupendously horrible filebank is.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Not a video, just a phone conversation.Yes it's long, it's 22 minutes long.It shouldn't be.Just listen to the first five minutes or so and then go burn some cats to dispel your now exploding rage against the stupid people.

The last person he gets, the floor manager, says something to the effect of "IT'S A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION."

Monday, December 04, 2006

I've basically holy shit default font changed new blogger beta has made me stupidier I can't even choose a font number revert revert!Anyway, I've basically hid myself from the internet (not really) and buried myself in this game.It's silly, there is SO much silliness, for example you're on the way to tame a HUGE dragon, and your midboss is basically...Peter fucking Pan.Why is Peter Pan in an ancient dragon cave in the middle of God knows where?Who knows.Things like that ("I'm a winner!) and the huge plot "twist" (lolwhat) made it hard for me to take any of the late game story conflicts seriously at all.

That being said, for some reason I still really like the characters, especially Maria.Not sure why, I think I might have to add a blue hair to my bookworm/mage/yanderes with swords/random lolis deal (the random lolis category is falling further and further into obsoletion, which is good, because people always look at me funny when I say that category; primula is easily covered by mages, and Ren now falls under blue hair...Shana falls under yanderes with swords...if anything I sort of want to add in cold "artificial lifeforms," except GA's Vanilla failed spectacularly.)Anyway I like Maria enough to want to draw her.Gasp.Except I have 260 battle trophies to take care of first.

This time, it’s a sweet fleeting love story about Dejiko, who has become an adult. The story starts on a certain year’s Christmas. Dejiko, who works part time at a cake shop, meets a boy, Senba Takurou, on her way home. The two who ran across each other by a tiny coincidence meet again in the city soon after. Dejiko was becoming interested in Takurou and while looking forward to meeting him again, he comes to Dejiko’s workplace… Will Dejiko’s love be fulfilled? Look forward to the story!

Monday, November 06, 2006

The National Republican Congressional Committee has launched a $2.1 million campaign calling individuals, including those on the Federal Do-Not-Call Registry, with automated telephone messages scripted to sound as if they are coming from the Democratic candidate up for election, in the hopes of driving away support come Tuesday's elections. "Hello. I'm calling with information about [Democratic candidate]," the recording begins, and then pauses for the traditional hang-up. If the recipient does indeed hang up, they then receive repeated phone calls back.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

September 30ths ranking battle is pretty hilarious, in that it features a "newcomer" KO with 0 points...and using SUPER ART THREE MAKOTO.Look no further for absolutely hilarious Makoto play from the "master" himself.

Good thing someone finaly threw this up on youtube, I didn't want to bother splitting my video with Sony Vegas because that program is way too complicated. (Virtualdub can't do wmvs.)

Friday, November 03, 2006

…are expected to sell for $200,00 USD and will be available late in 2007. The South Korean government plans to deploy these friendly reminders on the border between South and North Korea, to further ease relations between the countries

Not that I care about either console/platform, however this is a general blanket smackdown on all import stores that attempt to ship to Europe.And they wonder why people start pirating Japanese versions of these games...

Sunday, October 08, 2006

By Next-Gen they actually mean Tim Rogers, pretentious prick and all. (冗談 Tim)Anyway, some rather nice selections, and some that sort of puzzled me as to why they were included (The Gundam game piece had more on two other robot games than itself.)

One thing that definitely surprised the crap out of me though, is the amount of what's looking like REAL quality games...coming out for the 360.Like a LOT.Like Tim's always had FF/Nintendo bias, so to see him pimping like a million admittedly gorgeous ass 360 games caught me off guard.Or is it more the fact that the 360 is TANKING like crazy in Japan, and that the way it's been marketted in America is well...completely not what the JP wannabes here want.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Scenario 3 - The manga elitist“OMG! THIS WASN’T IN THE MANGA! THEY’RE DOING IT OUT OF ORDER!!!!!!! I’M GOING TO WATCH THIS SHOW BUT NOT ENJOY IT AND TELL YOU HOW MUCH IT SUCKS AND WHY YOU’RE STUPID FOR LIKING IT!!!!”

Again, I agree with everything in that newspost... but it's not the whole story. What's actually happening is that a choice is apparently being made to place a moral responsibility to Key's intellectual property over the moral responsibility to the people who bought the game on the promise of the patch. It is a fact that harm is being done to people by stopping the patch project for this reason at this time. If that's the call being made, okay, you're justified, I understand - but at least acknowledge what's being done.

He also didn't tell the people he was working with either about his decision, Esprite found out about it three days later after #shrinemaiden linked him.Honestly, this was one patch I personally didn't care about as an end user, but I can see the huge effect it would have had on the community.There are people who would have bought Kanon, there are people who DID buy Kanon, because of the prolonged promise of this patch.

It's hard to view this without a certain degree of cynicism ever since the WIND shenanigans happened.

Monday, September 18, 2006

I'm fucking AVANT GARDE here.This shit's going to be an anime in under four years I guarantee it.

Edit:I'm always sort of hard-pressed to explain what a "MAD" is, as it's usually not exactly in the genre of the USA's AMV (Anime music video)...it's more like they take the damndest comic-related shit and make parody openings/trailers/story sequences and crap from stuff that is usually not animated yet.

Owari no Chronicle is not even a manga, it's a lite novel, i.e. novel with illustrations, i.e. same vein as Haruhi or Shakugan no Shana.What the creator of this MAD has done is taken about 50? or so still shots and turned it into a trailer.Hell it doesn't even have a manga yet, much less an anime, so he's working on very little material.

Another example involving animated series would be taking lots of sequences of say a Magical Girl series and reconstructing a completely fake opening that mirrors a Gundam opening.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

JESUS CHRIST IT'S A LION GET IN THE CAR!Yeah, furry mmo?I only use that half jokingly.Basically everything's a "bull, bunny, dragon, sheep, lion, fox, raccoon, cat."Those are the classes.It's like a non shitty RO so far, though I'm already playing less than usual because no second jobs yet and no Phantom School.That's not to say first job is limited as say...RO's first job, not even close, you can do a LOT of crap in first job.Just the only way to level TM (Job exp) decent is do quests, and if you overlevel past the quest's range...well bye bye TM quest.And the best ones are in...Phantom school, which is not out yet.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

<ikusat> goddamn fucking taiwan tv<ikusat> they're like japanese fanboys<sibladeko> I thought everyone knew Taiwanese were more wannabe Japanese than anyone else :V<ikusat> well<ikusat> lots of americans are pretty wannabe<ikusat> see: shrimemaiden probably<ikusat> but ugh, tv has all these people trying to speak japanese, and doing it badly<sibladeko> I'm not exactly sure that's wannabe-ism. More like home-grown gayness with a JP flag planted in the field.<ikusat> for some reason no one here can pronounce stuff like ta, ka, and stuff<sibladeko> TW though is yeah...<sibladeko> ahahaha.<ikusat> like if you're looking at the hiragana, you gotta add the quote things<ikusat> so that becomes da, ga<ikusat> so just like american fanboys, taiwanese people like to use baka<ikusat> but it comes out as baga<sibladeko> it's all bopomofo's fault<sibladeko> lulz<ikusat> no, it's not<ikusat> there are equivalent sounds in chinese too<ikusat> there's a sound for ta, ka etc<ikusat> there's almost nothing you can't pronounce in japanese using chinese sounds<ikusat> but they always do the vocalized? form of it<ikusat> so the latest commercial is a girl saying over and over again<ikusat> itadakimasu<ikusat> but due to her being taiwanese it's<ikusat> idadagimasu<Kilvear> =V<sibladeko> :V<sibladeko> that's rather...<Kilvear> why i wished i didn't know that<sibladeko> that's really weird, considering there ARE equivalent sounds all over the place (TA DE PINGYING HEN CA) and shit :V<ikusat> right<ikusat> that's why i don't understand why this happens<ikusat> they like using an english word that japanese people stole<ikusat> so japanese take match and turn it into macchi<ikusat> fair enough right?<ikusat> oh taiwanese go oh look japanese wordd<ikusat> and it's now maji<ikusat> and they're like maji! maji!<sibladeko> :V<ikusat> and i'm like sure, i'm serious? what<Kilvear> omg<Kilvear> please stop<ikusat> the pain will never stop<Kilvear> you are killing me here.<ikusat> it annoys me to no end<Kilvear> STOP!!<ikusat> and they always mix in the japanese words with the chinese ones<ikusat> like<ikusat> hong dou bing bang ijiban sugi!!!<ikusat> then they have a dub of denpa otoko or something?<ikusat> KIDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA<sibladeko> ...<sibladeko> oh ffs<sibladeko> that's horrid. :V<ikusat> it sounds worse than it looks<sibladeko> you'd think since they were occupied they'd speak it better<ikusat> i don't understand why they pronounce it wrong though<ikusat> just no reason to<sibladeko> intentional localization mixed with ignorance maybe?<sibladeko> like let's make it ours!<sibladeko> or something :V<ikusat> yeah but<ikusat> i just don't see why it happens<ikusat> the sounds are obviously different<ikusat> but they ignore that for some reason<Kilvear> wtf is KIDA!?<ikusat> kita<ikusat> the whole kita-----------( ' v ' )----------!!! thing<Kilvear> iku you got to stop<ikusat> can't actually type it because lol trillian<Kilvear> http://shanachan.konosutekinabasho.net/cosplay/src/1152697940285.jpg<Kilvear> this is KITA!<ikusat> if you go to taiwan<ikusat> make sure to add " everywhere<ikusat> otherwise they won't understand you<Kilvear> add what?<ikusat> whatever turns ta to da<ikusat> and so on<ikusat> doujida? aaa??? gorrrra<sibladeko> idadagimasu i tried saying that and it just wouldn't come out that way<ikusat> i can say it because i don't actually speak japanese<Kilvear> =V<ikusat> but i know it's wrong* Kilvear bangs his head against the wall<ikusat> dadaima! ogaeri

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Bitter Irony.I have 15 out of the 16 pirate maps required to unlock Carnage Country.I am currently awake at 2:20am on a work day because the last map will not present itself in a timely fashion.Random pirate crews drop in on you during your item world adventures with these maps, trouble is which crew is determined by random, and if you steal once from the crew, they don't get new maps.So lots of repeats.Anyway, I felt something was looking up, no I didn't get a map, but the knight pirate who wears all legendary equipment came in...with a LEGENDARY EXCALIBUR.I have found all the legendary rank 39 equipment long long ago except for the excalibur, so I was pretty ecstatic.Until Yukimaru failed to steal, and the knight NORMAL attacked yukimaru, resulting in yukimaru COUNTERING with that rare 10% or so, and killing her instantly.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Friday, August 11, 2006

ThursdayThursday, got permission to leave early, etc.Ever since the transportation debacle Brady and I were forced to take the train.Train being Amtrak.And good old Amtrak decided that on thursday, they would delay the train from Poughkeepsie to Penn Station by three hours.As we waited we realized there was no way we'd catch the connection train to Baltimore from Penn.So instead we hopped on the local MTA to Grand Central, ate at Grand Central, and being the awesome time managers we are, barely made it to Penn on time for the connection.We arrived at Kenny's place around 11pm.

FridayGetting up semi early, taking a cab to the convention center, Kenny has decided to actually tag along.Pre-registration line is HUGE.Huge huge.Run into Kaela from home, talk a bit.Kenny hasn't preregistered, and is told he'll have to stand in registration line, then pre-registration line.This is complete and utter bullshit.Brady and I sit on line for 2? 3? hours, while Kenny, playing 10 dollars more, gets in faster than us through the registration line.Yeah...Anyway we stand around for a while before I split from them to go find the guy who made my custom badge (Patchouli!).See like 90 Cloud's, all with honestly different types of swords (It seems everyone had a different favorite), making Brady feel a bit inferior as he had no dyed hair AND no sword.Make my way to the videogame room, finally meet up with Kumu, Akuma, Sp00ky, Vman, GBlood, and some others.Kumu is NOTHING like I expected to him to be, I expected somewhat a lot angrier looking.Akuma is what I expected, I never knew spooky until the con, VMan is quite a surprise, GBlood is again what I expected.Played games for a while, went to eat at California pizza kitchen (Really good!)I didn't bother waiting for the dealer's room (No more lines after pre-reg) so in all honesty I played games until midnight or so.Right, around then, Gunflame Buri (hahahaha Gunflame) and company (Shazay) showed up, Gunflame didn't know Saturn made usb pads ("OMFG PINK PAD!"), played IaMP (Killed Buri in glorious nolag, killed Shazay with Alice cept he didn't have a stick) till it closed.Got to see the infamous Remi stick (and Gblood's completely random Keine/Mokou one)Figured out that the frikkin $1.60 shuttle by what used to be UniMini goes to Baltimore Convention Center (Ride home too!)Much better than cab fare.SaturdayKorean BBQ day!Before we went down, Kenny mentioned some girl's parents were holding a Korean BBQ, and said we could come though rides were questionable.Well the rides were provided so yay.Woke up around 10? 11? along with Brady and Kenny, sort of just sat around watching Brady play Starcraft against horrible people (I'm talking about YOU Ex) until it was lunchtime.Walked to where our ride was supposed to be (A nice asian girl), seems like quite a lot of people were going to the BBQ.Anyway, I fell asleep in the car, Kenny (IF YOU CALL SHOTGUN YOU ARE THE COPILOT) fell asleep in the car, we got lost and arrived last XDLots of food though for all, amazingly good, ran into Kevin Chung, who was finishing up his CS masters and...going to work IT for UPS after he graduated in NJ (Hometown, CS Masters...for IT? A little silly, though I think he knew also.)He was still heavily into gaming, so we just talked about old times and new times and whatever times.Also, it finally dawned on me (Well honestly a while back in the car with the music), that this was Kenny's church group, as I said "Holy Shit" without realizing it and it got a reaction.Still, food was really really good, so it was all worth it.Coming back, Brady's too tired to return to the con, but I go.I hear later that Kenny sold his badge to a friend for 20 dollars.Going down the elevator I run into Simon from JHU's anime club, who's also a mod at 4chan (Yes THAT cesspool, 4chan)And here is when I learn that if YOU ARE ON A PANEL, you get in for FREE.Turns out most anime conventions do this.I have sort of vowed to somehow fake myself onto a panel.

Run into Kumu and them again, go to watch fan parodies.A hilarious DDR one done by Cornell (And I understood the Mandarin part of it perfectly yay), pretty funny Naruto ones, until we hit...the epic.Basically some people documented their trip to last year's Otakon.It had its moments but...then it started getting idiotic.Really really long and and it WOULD NOT END.There was an insanely unfunny Masterpiece theater parody segment that pissed people off.When everyone though the movie was over, and ANOTHER Masterpiece theater parody showed up, EVERYONE booed.I have not seen such an overwhelming vote of disapproval in forever.People were yelling "Pool's closed" and "Sage this shit!"They fastforwarded it (And holy shit it kept going after the END of Otakon, did the people even screen how long this thing was?) but the damage was done.The audience could not take any more bullshit or buildup, when the next parody talked about kidnapping Britney Spears we walked out.

Bunch of game tournaments that day, Soul Calibur 3, Smash and Slash (along with those rhthym games that I don't care about but EVERYONE else plays.)Kumu entered Soul Calibur 3 because, as he said, "He hated himself."He lost against a Cervy 3rd or 4th round.

Smash had to line up an hour early for both tournaments so I didn't enter, but I hear the gay rabbit ear wearing Swedish asian trap won singles using Peach. (Yes, he is a gay rabbit ear wearing pretty boy.)Ricky (Link player, played him at the last Katsucon, insane shit) won the FFA tournament.

Slash was sort of :VEvery player complained of the plasma screen TV lag, Buri kept missing his FRCs.Anyway Buri got a bad match in Potemkin plus lag.Ironically, GBlood, who plays Potemkin, lost to a random Sol.I honestly think GBlood should have just won with random shit, but seems like his busters were whiffing like crazy (yay plasma tv lag).Finals was Shazay's Slayer versus one of Vman's friends with Ky.Let me reiterate that Ky is a scrub.Yes I was a Ky player, I honestly don't know if I'll keep him in Slash since he's SUCH A SCRUB.Anyway pretty exciting finals, came down to final round, with Ky taking it.With four? or so TVs turned off because of the slash tourney, VMan comandeered one with his laptop and we had ta da, Eternal Fighter Zero on a plasma screen.Good exposure for the game, unfortunately I had hoped Buri would return with his laptop so we could do the same hookup for Iamp (Putting it on a plasma), but he fell asleep when he got home instead.Anyway VMan was the only one knowing how to IBD or whatever the fuck acronym for roman cancelling in that game is called, so he pretty much owend Kumu and I in turns (Though I finally started taking rounds with Kano, as she really doesn't have many corner air relaunch bullshit combos to speak of, just crazy bullshit ranged normals and projectiles up the wazoo!)

4chan panel.Ha walked in half way and just listened to the end of it.Simon was taking questions, and I got to see the guy who started one of the biggest pits of despair on the internet when he was only 14.Colonel Sanders was there, along with "The King" from Burger King, an ME-Tan, an afro invasion team and a Bridget Brigade.

Anyway, being the stupid idiot I am, could NOT refind the shuttle stop and so just took a cab home for like 15 dollars (ouch ouch)

SundayAGAIN Brady is too lazy to go the convention, so again I'm the only one going again.Go into the dealer's room, buy some last minute ridiculously expensive 1.5? 1.6x marked up JP artbooks (Magna Carta illustrator...Shana artbook. Yeah I still haven't quite gotten over Shana yet XD)Just sort of lazed around, with Brady making plans for Amtrak home (Our plan, argue for discount since we got screwed on Friday.)

Here's where shit starts getting annoying.Upon getting to Baltimore Penn, we get our refund on the first ticket (only 20 dollars out of 80), and then we are told that Coach is SOLD OUT going home, and that only Business class (140 dollars!) from JUST Baltimore to NYC is available.Neither of us have the spine to really argue that they screwed us once and are now screwing us twice.Bullshit.Brady and I think for a wihle, Brady suggests greyhound, 40 dollars, a lot cheaper.So we go to the Greyhound station, and there we find THE LINE of lines.Seems like EVERYONE in Otakon is going back to New York too.How quaint.Anyway the line already snakes around the building, we got there at 3:40 for the 4:15 bus.The 4:15 bus leaves full, the 4:30 bus leaves full, the FIVE thirty bus leaves full, the SIX thirty bus leaves full, we finally get on a bus at 7:45 or so.As you can see we spent longer time in this line than the preregistration line.And also the entire time we were in front of two fucking Jersey girls who WOULD NOT SHUT UP.I've never heard two people who could talk so much about E/N and their fucking lives as much as these two.Nothing about the con they went to, nothing about anime in general, just ABOUT THEMSELVES AND THEIR FRIENDS AND WHO'S NOT REALLY THEIR FRIEND AND WHO THEY LIKE OUT OF THEIR FRIENDS AND WHOS GOING OUT WITH WHO AND ARGHLEFEWFJLASL.Yeah, I fucking unintentionally absorbed their life story.Of course, luck would dictate that on the 5 hour bus ride we would of course SIT NEXT TO THE SAME TWO GODAMN JERSEY GIRLS.

Anyway, bus was full of Con people going home, so generally friendly environment, got to see Bleach PSP (Pretty nice) and other things.But it was a long bus ride.Managed to school brady about 20 consecutive times in Brain Academy Versus, basically I had like two games I was weaker than him in, the rest I completely trashed him in.I think it was the flashcard matching and the flashcard memory.Either way, I'd win by ridiculous scores of like 300 to 50.He only came close in the end, 300 to 250 or so, and all he did was choose those two games I was weak in.

Bus hits Port Authority at about 12:30, and we barely make the 1:10am train back to Poughkeepsie.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

This is the show that's replacing Haruhi's timeslot.After the completely wtf first episode (They don't explain that he's been on drugs in the show) I went to go find manga.

You could say it's about otakus but not really.Rather, it's more about different types of hikkimoris/social recluses/shut-ins/outcasts and how they cope.

From our jobless main character Sato who can't deal with other people looking at him or talking about him, to his next door otaku neighbor Yamazaki who is bitter against all women and views H-games as "Rape them in your head" revenge, to his former iincho classmate Kobayashi who has to care for a brother who plays FFXI all day and thus completely hates the weak-willed and has taken up a role in a multi-tier pyramid scheme to hurt people on the lower end, to his former senpai turned officelady Kashiwa who steals and uses tons of psychidelic drugs and hates her life, and finally to his "angel" Misaki, who can't tolerate and skips school and who is delighted to have found someone worse than her to help so she can have meaning in her life.

It is definitely for 18+, perverted as hell, darkly funny to the point of tears, and so honest it hurts.The manga is a complete diarama of extremes of despair and hope...and you see the vicious cycles these people build for themselves.

In terms of the characters, Sato's pretty normal compared to the rest.He dropped out of college cause he couldn't handle the people around, and he basically sits in his apartment all day taking drugs his former senpai passes him and going completely trippy while listening to the godamn loud anime music next door.Is able to sympathize with people who suffer as much as him or have their own problems, is completely unable to relate to people who have normal or happy lives.

Yamazaki's dream is to make a super H-game, his family wants him to take over the business but he saved up and left anyway for vocational school, he has lost a lot of his trust in the real world and corrupts Sato quite a bit (2d pron/otaku), but honestly their friendship is really strong and their dream (Sato and his) of creating an H-game of H-games is sometimes all that they've got left when they hit rock bottom.

Kobayashi is a different case, as she herself is not a hikkimori per se but she is 5 million in the hole because she has to care for her MMORPG-playing brother and because she got tricked into the pyramid scheeme; she's forcibly deluded herself into believing that her career of squeezing from the trash to feed trash is better because it's screwing over the ones at the bottom and she's so good at selling this bullshit to others because she targets people who are caught just like herself.

Kashiwa generally hates people, she works in a doctor's office so she is constantly on drugs and giving Sato drugs, has wanted to kill herself multiple times, it's really unsure if she likes Sato though she has said she only felt like herself with him back in school when they'd talk, she gets married (to someone else) and manages to stay sane for a little while until she flips out again.

Misaki starts off as Sato's "savior", decides to view Sato as a personal project of rehabilitation because in her words, "I have found someone worse than me," but it becomes quickly obvious that she hurts as much as she helps, stalker mentality (has Sato's phone tapped), needs him badly to make herself feel better, does not go to school herself because she hates all the people there, a rather scary character as she has no moral compass to guide her attempts to "cure" Sato because in the end its out of her own desire to feel good.

Definitely not everyone's cup of tea, it'll probably offend 90% of the people I know.Still it had a powerful impact on me.It's like watching a sad mad schizophrenic play where the characters have all lost their goals in life and keep colliding on the way down.

Monday, July 03, 2006

See one of the things about Haruhi is I honestly like her the least out of the rest of the female characters.This includes Kyon's sister and Tsuruya.That's not to say I hate her, or even dislike her.It's just that I like her the least.

I have had problems with the tsundere character type, it can be done well, and it can be done horribly.Horribly would be Love Hina, which has a fucking psycho bitch as the main girl, or her counterpart in Negima (Which I admittedly tolerated for a lot longer than I should have), or Ranma 1/2.Well would be...Rin/Saber from FSN, Suiseiseki from Rozen Maiden, or admittedly Shana from Shakugan no Shana.Most tsundere characters are also rather lacking in intelligence.

Haruhi is...well she'd rate decently if NOT FOR THE UTTER SUPERIORITY of the portrayal of the other two character types around her.The types being "Silent-girl" and "Childhood friend/devoted/sister."

Nagato Yuki is a "silent-girl" type, one could argue a Rei (Evangelion) clone.Except Yuki is honestly flat out more awesome in every way.No crazy tragic past of cloning and no giant robot to pilot, but there is something amazingly appealing about Yuki that makes her my favorite character in the entire story.Perhaps it's her fight against Asakura.Perhaps it's her completely destroying the computer club single-handedly at real time strategy battleship.Perhaps it's her completely deadpanning guitar riffs in a witch outfit in the awesomest bit of animation evar.Perhaps it's all of that combined with her changing personality from non-human to a really sweet girl.

Asahina Mikuru is the "childhood friend/devoted/sister" type.If you notice her voice actor, she's basically played the same role a whole shitload of times (Kaede in Shuffle, with a twist =D, or Cierra from Riviera, or Hiyori from Mizuiro)Mikuru is like...fanservice personified; we know it, it's listed episode two (Volume one) on the dotted line.Is this bad?She does it in such a way that she's utterly adorable everytime I see her, and somehow doesn't get old.And you're talking to someone who has seen a lot of crappy fanservice (Hi Love Hina/Tenchi Muyo/Anything by the guy who did I's/Divergence Eve/Green Green/Da Crapo/etc)Plus her chemistry with Kyon (To a lesser extent Haruhi) is absolutely a joy to watch.While Nagato is my favorite character, Mikuru x Kyon is probably my favorite pairing.

Which brings us to the final point...I know the pairing listed above probably won't happen, but it's almost infuriating to think of the REASON it won't happen, namely, HARUHI WILL COMPLETELY DESTROY THE WORLD if it does.It happens in episode 14 when she flirts with him and it happens when they play baseball.It just strikes me as sort of unfair.

Anyway, the episode flat out ruled, even being a Haruhi episode.Wraps up season one nicely.Also, you can assume that Haruhi completely did not believe what Kyon said at the end of episode 14, as she's still completely oblivious.I'm sort of curious how season 2 will pan out, seeing as they've nailed all the short stories and basically only have long arcs left.Hopefully they'll be done well. (3 years ago arc, world w/o Haruhi arc, summer arc.)

Definitely third best in the game.All her weaknesses can be solved by hitting the enemy three times and killing them off.Did I mention I bloody hate fighting Yuyuko?Irony then that our first Japanese visitor to silly old #Iamp uses the fat ghost of 4K+ damage.

Friday, June 30, 2006

Higurashi no naku koro ni 13/26Well, more wtfs, I know I have pieces of a puzzle here I just can't put them together.Piece one: Takano and TomitakeTakano knows about the Mion yakuza family, and she knows they are using Oyashiro's curse to cover their tracks and commit murders.When she meets Keiichi in the rain, it is OBVIOUS both of them have just committed murder, or what feels like murder."Did you make sure the corpse was buried properly?""We never met tonight."I'm assuming Takano killed Tomitake, had Tomitake's bike in her car, and had Tomitake's body in her trunk, used false dental records to falsify her death to pretend it was Oyashiro's curse.She came there for the sole purpose of pulling the murder off in the context of "creepy town atmosphere," having herself as the "death" and Tomitake as the disappearance.

Piece two: RikaRika seems to be rather sane and rather apart from all the madness, yet she dies anyway.I think of Rika is a sacrifice.I am not sure what killed her in arc three, though it turned Satoko against Keiichi.In arc two she stabbed herself in the head, possibly to appease psycho demon Oyashiro Mion to let Keiichi live.Rika is also probably never possessed.

Piece three: SatoshiSatoko's brother was probably very similar to Keiichi.He and Shion were in a relationship most likely from the amount of fanarts out there and her rage at hearing the words "transferred out."Mion was also most likely jealous.He is also most likely dead from the opening scene of episode 9.Nails impaled in his hands and intestines hanging out would indicate that psycho Mion from arc 2 got her hands on him.Keiichi's guess that Satoshi killed Satoko's aunt is probably correct, but I think instead of the bat he offered himself as a sacrifice to Oyashiro.From arc one it is also implied he was at some point possessed.

Piece four: RenaBoth Rena and Satoshi were at some point possessed by Oyashiro.This is mentioned in arc one while Keiichi is feigning sleep.Only Rena managed to return alive.I think that the first arc is Keiichi being possessed and that Rena was perfectly sane.Arc three Rena has relatively few scenes.She gets angry for suggesting once that it is not Oyashiro's curse (she probably experienced it first hand in her past at the school of broken glass), and she has a very weird grin in episode 13 when saying "Yeah I'll ask you for your clinic receipt."Arc two Rena is curiously strong.She says she will never "go away," when Keiichi breaks down when Rika disappears and she is with Keiichi when they confront psycho Mion together.My opinion currently of Rena is that when she left the town she was possessed in the school of broken glass, seeing completely fucked up shit akin to Keiichi in arc one.She managed to come back alive from the ordeal somewhat stronger, and the Rena we see is a survivor.

Piece five: MionEven though she flat out denies it in arc three, Mion IS the inheritor of a Yakuza clan.She is also half demon.It is obvious that she can get genuinely violent through just her demon self alone, I believe she is the only one who when not under Oyashiro's influence is still a very dangerous individual.Still, I think that Mion in arc one when her eyes go crazy is Keiichi's hallucinations of both her and Rena.However Mion getting angry when Keiichi accused her while swinging the bat is normal scary Mion (demon showing a bit).Mion in arc two is her demon self, triggered from Keiichi giving the doll to Rena, probably combined with some Oyashiro posession also.Mion in arc three is Mion with her demon self never having triggered, thus she denies her Yakuza involvement, and rather is a picture of perfect calm.

Piece six: SatokoSatoko seems to have a pretty rough life after breaking the hand off the Oyashiro statue.Her parents fell off a waterfall, her brother is probably dead by Mion's hand or possession insanity, her uncle and aunt beat her.Has Satoko ever been possessed?Now there's a quandary...I don't think so, I think people around her have been, and so, as a side effect it has made her extremely unstable. (Her brother, Keiichi)In the end seeing Keiichi holding the axe near Rika's body snapped what little little trust she had in her world, it's a pity.

Piece seven: KeiichiAh Keiichi, how far we've come along.Anyway, first things first.At this stage I believe the entire first four episodes to be Keiichi being possessed by Oyashiro and hallucinating.In the flashback of Satoko breaking the Oyashiro statue's hand, there IS a !chibi! Keiichi next to Rika.Meaning he had lived in the town before and has forgotten on his return.In Rena's words, deserving of Oyashiro posession because he "tried to run away." (Rena tried to run away herself, if you remember, and her posession when she broke all the windows in the her new school and beat up her classmates was the result.)Keiichi in arc two I think is sane, batshit Mion has enough insanity for the entire rest of the cast in that arc.Arc three is a problem.Keiichi actually survives the entire ordeal (no crazy last minute psycho undead Mion showing up or is it leaving the viewer in suspense) and his actions completely originated from within himself ("I want to protect Satoko") instead of reacting to perceived threats. (Like psycho Rena/Mions)However, Keiichi also shows some neurotic signs, as shown by his elaborate trap to kill Satoko's uncle which looks like it succeeds, the flashback to his student examinations revealing him to be very intelligent in respect to certain goals (cunning), his ability to hold his own against the four girls in games of all types.The major problems that show up in this arc are the same ones that sort of felt thrown on at the end of arc two just to screw with you, that is, multiple identities.In arc two, in the hospital, Ooshiro randomly throws out a "we found all their bodies, including Mion's, in the well," when you know that Mion just stabbed him in the stomach.In arc three, ALL FOUR girls claim to have seen Keiichi at the festival, shooting a gun for stuffed dolls, eating ice cream, watching Rika's performance, when he most assuredly believes he was killing Satoko's uncle and burying his body and meeting Takano (who probably just killed Tomitake.)The evidence is all there, the uncle's motorcycle was thrown into the lake, along with Satoshi's bat, the hole was dug according to the investigators.But where is the body then, and who came back and beat Satoko after Keiichi supposedly killed him?It seems to me that Oyashiro, instead of directly working against Keiichi by possession this time around, seemed to be something that he randomly controlled, by directing it against people he didn't like (like the ENTIRE town being raped by volcanic gas? geez)

That's it for now, I'm all out of analysis, and I'm avoiding the spoiler threads like mad.

Well, I am officially caught up with all my anime.Except one Ouran episode.It came out while I was watching the others.SUE ME!

Anyway:The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi 13/14It's funny how many people say Koizumi is HAADO GEI for Kyon-kun.Anyway, next on Haruhi, the end of the world!

Utawareru Mono 11/26Changes from the game, mainly time rearrangements and movement of events."Karura has joined the party!"Seeing Karura animated is lot more <3 than reading about it.The "Touka has joined the party!" message still has not appeared, even in episode 13's raws.They better not delay it (What I mean by story changes), I want my Touka.Plus, the start of Hakuoro trying to stay sane.

Ouran High School Host Club 11/26"Reverse harem!"Bwahahahaha, Nekozawa's little sister is too good.Cute and hilarious.I seriously thought Renge would be a one time joke but if this episode says anything it's that Renge rocks.Yes I haven't seen 12, yes I know it's about evil Honey-san or something.Stop nagging me :V

Higurashi will get its own post because of the length of the analysis.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Sunday, June 25, 2006

I had a dirty little secret.I never finished Shana because I heard all the meh things before I got to it.Anyway, I made a deal with Lilyes that I'd finish the last three episodes of Shana if she finished the last three episodes of Fate Stay Night.

So here I am.Hm, status quo endings are never good.That and when you change too much of the novels.Thing is, I think I would have preferred it if they had both DIED.That would have been a real WOW WHAT THE FUCK for emotional impact.I think it was the only way you could have saved the show.But of course, they had a movie in production so there's NO way they could have done that.

Bah.Whatever.Lilyes I expect at least a post on your feelings on the ending of Fate Stay Night.I know you're not an anime blog, nor do you even fake being one, but I'd like one still XD

Thursday, June 22, 2006

KyoAni's insistence on going out of order as some sort of joke at the fan's expense really doesn't make me angry anymore, as they've conveniently (coincidence I think not) saved all the ridiculously over-budget episodes for the season end to go out with a bang.And what a bang it will be.I know what episode 13-14 are about, no spoilers, but let's just say plot wise it's pretty huge.But enough of KyoAni jerking us around, let's get to what this post is REALLY about.

Yuki.Nagato.3 year old space alien, android, glasses girl, no glasses girl, witch, hikkimori, gamer, guitarist, goddess.Yuki is amazing, as she starts out literally as a super robot and just becomes more awesome.She changes the most over the course of the novels, and there are some really nice moments (alternate universe Yuki in novel 4, even if it IS an alternate universe Yuki, is still Yuki) as she "evolves."

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Saturday, June 03, 2006

I had fallen way behind the previous week because of headaches, the head and general sluggishness.So, it was time to...Catch up on all the anime I missed (What a difficulty goal -_-)Utawareru Mono up to 8:Kamyu's voice is slightly annoying, but I like Kamyu, so I can live with it.Bishewi is now on the good side, yay.Hakuoro hates paperwork.Still rocking along at its own leisurely pace, but well, no tactics game can be a game without lots and lots of battles, so unfortunately nothing peaceful can last forever.

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi up to 9:Kyoto Animation, continuing their rather silly ordering.I find it rather easy to like every female more than Haruhi XDThe latest episode though was sort of quiet and muted; but it did do something to raise the my rating of Haruhi a little.Still though when you see who she's competing with (Mikuru is a goddess, and Nagato...well you'll see), she still comes off as the most annoying of the three.(Mumble mumble needs more Tsuruya also.)

Higurashi no naku koro ni up to 8:Flat out craziness.I'm left scrambling for theories to attempt to explain what is going on; evidentally arc three is where it all comes crashing down (as if it hasn't already).Episode 7 is a horrible joke by Korean animators using animated gifs however, when Mion flips it's IMPOSSIBLE to take it seriously as it is so poorly animated as it made me bust out laughing.Episode 8 is just screwed up shit.Lol poor drm is emo over Shion still; granted I liked her too...Mion has to die.Theory time:1. Oyashiro is real. Highly likely. There is SOME sort of posession going on. Considering Rena from the first arc (prone to switching, bat shit evil) and Rena from the second arc (no switch inside her, a rather comforting presence for Keichi who has to face the new bitch queen, maybe clairvoyent though?), one has to say that something definitely happened to Rena in the first one.

2. Everyone is hopped up on drugs. I assume the syringe in the first arc is what made Keichi claw his own throat out, and the same with the photographer. The problem is if you start viewing everything as a hallucination, you're back to where you started (trust nothing, get nothing). For the sake of argument I'm going to assume that whenever Keichi sees a girl go crazy, it is happening. (One could argue that it's a hallucination, but who knows.)

So what are you left with? You are left with an entity called Oyashiro that seems to be able to posess the dead, posess a variety of people, and just generally protective of its secrets and evil or a demon or something.

You are also left with Mion, who is usually the main force behind a lot of the murders each arc and has the mafia on her side, who probably is half demon herself and has a demon side that is however still infused with Mion.Meaning that yes, Mion can seem posessed without Oyashiro (When she gets very angry, but still it's just an evil Mion, still has feelings), and that yes, Oyashiro can posess Mion (Forgets everything even evil Mion cares about and is 10 times nuttier)

Fate Stay Night up to 21:I agree with Allan here, episode 20 is pretty blah.But when I look at how much I enjoyed 21, I can't say episode 20 didn't serve a purpose, and that was to set up 21.I wonder if they(animators) will let Saber stay now, cause wow 21 was dramatic.Shirou has theoretically died 4000000 times or something by now XDSpoiler: Gilgamesh was pretty cool when he was young (Fate Hollow Atarxia)...wonder why he became such an asshole when he got older.

Ouran High School Host Club up to 8:Wow, episode 8 was a real change of tone with the fight."You won't get any merits out of sleeping with me."I have to really wonder about Kyouya-senpai in this episode...I still think he's awesome though.Tamaki is the king of misunderstood dorks as always (lol this blindfold means you won't see it and earplugs mean you won't hear it!)

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

I swear there was an old ?english? mystery game like this.In the beginning you have one scenario, and it is very limited.You get to the end, don't learn much, and you are left with lots of questions.However this unlocks a new scenario, which uses the same characters, but focuses on something (or someone) else and uses a different timeline/eventline.In the process, it answers some questions you had about the first scenario while being its own arc, but brings up its own questions.This cycle repeats until you have played through all the scenarios, and now you finally feel you have all the puzzle pieces to figure out what the hell was going on in all of them.

That's how I think Higurashi is going to turn out.Oh, that and it's completely fucked up.This is the shit you have dreams about when you watch it @_@

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

1. Nintendo will win this round. The minute Sony decided to release a 500$ plastic box with 600 dollars for the full version, they completely said fuck you to everyone.There's a REASON I bought PS2 so late folks.Wait till PS3 my fucking ass, I could buy 5 playstation 2s with the money you jokers.Also, I hear that for backwards compatibility, the 500 dollar version will NOT HAVE MEMORY SLOTS.They're supposed to tell us later how that will work.

Plus did you see Nintendo's godamn presentation?27 playable demos?How the fuck did they pull that off.Scoring Madden, while I admittedly couldn't give a shit about, but means BIG THIRD PARTY MONEYS AND IS UNFORTUNATELY VITAL TO A CONSOLE'S SUCCESS?How the fuck did they pull that off.Zelda twilight princess dual release?Those bastards!Tennis?Even that looked fun.There's a list of things that just felt good and right and made it good to like Nintendo again.WII RULE FOREVER.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Fate Stay Night 15Ahahaha, Allan called me to tell me I'm a perv, but he DID admit he thought it was hot!"WAS THIS A HENTAI GAME KEVIN? GODAMNIT WAS IT?"Anyway new opening, song is pretty mediocre, but plenty of goodies in the animation, probably just to appease the fans, as it shows Archer and Shirou fighting, which is from path two, which is DEFINITELY not happening cause well...Archer died!Though Allan did say it's pretty possible for him to fight him in his mind or something like that now.I guess they could do it that way.

Anyway, I, and probably tens of thousands of JP and USA otakus were wondering at the beginning of this episode...how are they going to do THAT scene?I guess even though Fate Stay Night 15 was relatively tame, it was sort of a, "Shit, there's obviously something in this equation here that I'm missing."The CG dragon was fucking hilarious, where the fuck did that come from?Anyway yes, big spoiler two was basically...MANA TRANSFER EQUAL SECKS.Come on, don't tell me it didn't occur to you.I was sort of puzzled how they'd pull it off, since it's a primetime show.Well, this is how, with a CG dragon.Hardeharhar.Anyways, looking forward to next episode, as Shirou will finally be upgraded from useless to "Stupidly overpowered Type Moon character™."About time, too.One thing nagging me, is everyone forgetting how to count?Archer killed Berserker six times in the game, five times in the anime, Rin does kill him once, but then he has...seven lives left?Does not add up to twelve no matter how you slice it.

Utawareru Mono 1 and 2I feel sort of guilty for waiting to watch this one, I mean hell, the time I devoted to this game was enormous.But yeah I waited for a couple reviews before getting it myself, cause honestly, how CRUSHED would I be if it sucked?(Case in point, Disgaea anime is reportedly SHIT. That just breaks my heart.)Well anyway, unless you've been blind, you might have noticed the entire style of my blog is in this bamboo with brown coloring layout, and this cute girl with wacky ears as my icon.That, my friends, is Utawareru Mono, a Japanese tactics game where your main character is a guy with amnesia who has a mask stuck to his face and attacks with the fan of the gods. (Ok yes my first thought was...why a godamn fan? You might as well slap them for 1 damage!)It fucking rocks, and honestly, the anime is looking very good.For one thing it's superbly PRETTY.The opening animation is gorgeous, the opening fighting is on par with the Bleach opening's fights.Also, NO BRANCHING PATHS IN THE GAME.This means no half-assed combination of plot lines, no messed up inequality for characters, it means they can follow the story pretty much to the letter, and come out with a good to awesome show.Finally, ERURUU SQUEAK!!!By the way, pretty much every supporting character you see you get as a party member in game...ah it's nice to see old faces again.I highly recommend this one.